Reward Point System
A dungeon master who goes by the name of Deez on DungeonMastering.com recently came up with a good way to reward players for outstanding things that their PC’s did during a session. I am changing his method a bit, but what do you all think of this? At the end of every hour or so, every player receives a “point” that they give to another player. How do they choose which player to give it to? They choose the player that they think was the “MVP” so to say during that time. If he was a good team player or came up with a good tactical decision are all good reasons. Note that this point should be awarded to more of what the player did, and not his character, though playing the character well could deserve your point. What are these points used for? You tally them on your character sheet, and you can use them for a variety of things, such as preventing a random and stupid death, or changing a decision that would normally not be undone. The DM decides the point cost for the thing that the player wants to do. In this way, no one can say that the DM plays favorites, rewards are given for good gaming, and game play goes smoother. Remember, you cannot give the point to yourself, and the point must be given when the DM calls for it. What do you guys think? Leave a comment!
On a side note, Mike and I found that the cable we need to send the map from my program to the TV costs about $39.99, so we’re gonna make sure we all want that and if so I’d like everyone to donate a few bucks. Thanks for your assistance.
BONUS XP! I will award my players 200 XP merely for sending me an e-mail at daveg825@gmail.com saying that they read the site at least once a week. Do not tell others about this or you will not recive the XP!
MORE BONUS XP! If you join the AF staff by clicking on the link over to the right there, I will award another 200 XP! You will loose the XP if you do not fulfill the requirements of the job you choose from the list.
These two opportunities expire in one week from the date of this post.
January 2, 2008 at 7:35 am
This is a great idea! It will really motovate the players to do their best and not goof off!
January 2, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Um… you’re a player.
And we don’t really goof off, we just have fun. That’s what we’re there to do, isn’t it? You are correct in saying that they will do better in a sense. It will make them think more outside of the box with strategies and battle tactics.
January 3, 2008 at 12:31 am
[...] You can read Deez’s comment and Dave’s article. [...]
January 3, 2008 at 9:43 am
It’s a good idea and it moves one responsibility from the DM to the players.
If you wish to have a more structured list of things to be done with these MVP points, might I suggest the following (I assume you play a flavour of D&D):
Each point buys any of the things Action points (from the SRD) allow.
If you don’t wish to have players horde points from game to game and spend them all on a climatic battle, exchange points for XPs by the end of the evening. 1 point = 25% of the XPs of a CR equivalent encounter.
My 2 cents.
January 3, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Awesome, thanks for the comment and the note on your site! I’ll be sure to at dungeonmastering.com to the list of links here.
January 3, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Interesting. The difficulty would be making the “point” matter enough (i.e. +1/-1 to die rolls) to make it interesting, but not so overpowering that it would unbalance the gameplay. The XP bonus concept by chattydm is actually quite good, although quickly descending into a point of dimishining returns with higher level i.e. Level 8+, although XP is XP I suppose. I suppose throwing an additional stipulation to the Action Points rule of “using 1 point at any given time” would be better to avoid hording.
January 3, 2008 at 10:05 pm
If you always give 25% of a CR equivalent encounter per point, XP will scale with level (Roughly 300 X party Level / 16).
January 4, 2008 at 10:09 pm
That’s true.
I guess it will work out as long as you make sure it’s made to work with the PC’s levels.
January 5, 2008 at 9:08 am
Make that 300 X party level/4 …. my bad.
Good luck guys and drop by chattydm.net if you have a few minutes ti spare.
January 21, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hey, I made it to another website. Infinitesimal fame, yes! From a tiny handful, I shall move up to a larger handful, to two handfuls, to two hands full (cupped so that the fame can be mounded to allow more than just the two hands separate), and so on. I can almost hear the ladies calling my name.
The one problem with an hourly reward is balance. There would have to be a cap on either the number one player can have or the amount that can be used at once. The players should not come to rely on them. I like them to be rare, powerful tools. Of course, it all depends on the group and how responsible they are.
I’m glad you like the idea. I suppose I can’t really take full credit for it, though. It was brought to my last group by a friend who brought it from his old group. To my knowledge though, it was my idea to redeem the points for in-game effect. I got the impression that they just used them for bragging right.